Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo Former Species

pachyderm pro

pachyderm pro

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Hopping on the trend with a comprehensive list of species formerly kept by Brookfield. Brookfield has such a long history and alongside that a long list of species that have come and gone throughout the years. This list is far from complete, so anyone who may know any additional information please contribute. I tried to label when species were removed or at the very least around the time they were removed.

*Current Exhibits

Habitat Africa! The Savannah:
Aardvark (Until 2016)
Ostrich (Until 2012)
Milky Eagle Owl (Until Circa 2005)
Trumpeter Hornbill (Until Circa 2012)
Waterbuck (Until 2018)
Warthog (Until 2018)

Habitat Africa! The Forest:
African Rock Python (Until 2021)
Blue Duiker (Until 2012)
Congo Forest Buffalo (Until 2010)
Royal Antelope (Until 2018)
West African Gaboon Viper (Until 2020)

Hoofstock Row:
Pere David's Deer (Unsure When Removed)

Australia House:
Cassowary (Until 2014)
Kangaroo Rat (Unsure When Removed)
Tree Kangaroo (Unsure When Removed)
Various Finch Species (Until Circa 2016)

Pachyderm House:
African Bush Elephant (Until 2010)
Asian Elephant (Until Circa 1993)
Baird's Tapir (Until 2017)
Indian Rhino (Unsure When Removed)
Malayan Tapir (Unsure When Removed)
Nile Hippo (Until 2012)
Pygmy Hippo (Until 2021)

Deserts Edge/Clouded Leopard Rainforest (Formally known as Predator Ecology Exhibit:
Black-backed Jackal (Unsure When Removed)
Canadian Lynx (Until Circa 1990)
Caracal (Until 2019)
Fennec Fox (Until Circa 2015)
Margay (Until Circa 1990)
Mohol Bushbaby (Until 2019)
Ocelot (Until Circa 1990)
Pallas Cat (Until Circa 1990)
Rock Hyrax (Until 2019)
Sand Cat (Until Circa 1990)

Cat Grottos:
Jaguar (Unsure When Removed)

Living Coast:
Brown Pelican (Unsure When Removed)
Vampire Bat (Until 2014)

The Swamp:
American Alligator (Until 2012)

Tropic World:
Black-crested Mangabey (Until 2018)
Cotton-top Tamarin (Until 2018)
Mandrill (Until Circa 2013)
Red-faced Spider Monkey (Until 2016)
Tufted Capuchin (Until Circa 2013)
Nile Monitor (Unsure When Removed)
Northern Tree Shrew (Until 2017)

Pinniped point:
Northern Fur Seal (Until Circa 2004)
Pacific Walrus (Until Circa 2004)

*Former Exhibits

Children's Zoo:
Northern Raccoon
North American Porcupine
Red-Tailed Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Various Domestic Livestock

Baboon Island:
Aoudad
Nile Crocodile
Olive Baboon
Rhesus Macaque
Sun Bear

Bear Grottos:
American Black Bear
Andean Bear
Giant Panda

Ibex Island/Dall Sheep Ridge
Siberian Ibex
Dall Sheep

Small Mammal House:
Cuscus
Degu
Dwarf Lemur
Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin
Greater Grison
Green Acouchi
Leopard Cat
Short-Eared Elephant Shrew
Springhass
Sugar Glider
Tarsier

Small Mammal Grotto:
Arctic Fox

Illinois Exhibits:
American Mink
Bobcat
Red Fox
Coyote

Aquatic Bird House/Perching Bird House:
Flamingo
King Penguin
Kiwi
Southern Rockhopper Penguin
 
Some additions. Don't know years unfortunately:

Habitat Africa! The Savannah:
Topi
Pygmy Falcon

Habitat Africa! The Forest:
Pouched Rat
African Lungfish

Deserts Edge/Clouded Leopard Rainforest (Formally known as Predator Ecology Exhibit:
Aardwolf
Elephant Shrew (one of the small species)
Cairo Spiny Mouse
Prevost's Squirrel
Tree Shrew
Small-clawed Otter

Living Coast:
Green Turtle (are these still gone?)

The Swamp:
Least Shrew
Long-tailed Weasel
Golden Mouse
Virginia Opossum
many US-native birds, herps, fish, bugs

Tropic World:
Red-capped Mangabey
Spectacled Langur
King Vulture

Children's Zoo:
Woodchuck
Striped Skunk

Baboon Island:
was Guinea Baboon, not Olive
 
Green-breasted Mango in the Perching Bird House. I don't know when it was removed but I know they had it in 2009.

The interesting story behind the individual is that this individual of a non-migratory tropical bird species somehow made its way to Beloit, WI, where it stayed at a backyard hummingbird feeder and was seen by hundreds of birders. It was captured by the Brookfield Zoo to save it from the upcoming winter. This was the only individual of this species ever kept in captivity in North America.
 
Gondwana said:
Deserts Edge/Clouded Leopard Rainforest (Formally known as Predator Ecology Exhibit:
Aardwolf
Elephant Shrew (one of the small species)
Cairo Spiny Mouse
Prevost's Squirrel
Tree Shrew
Small-clawed Otter
Click to expand...
Some interesting stuff here. I distinctly recall hearing about the aardwolves being present around the early 2000s, but I couldn't find enough references to back it up. It is worth noting the the Prevost's Squirrels are still there.
Gondwana said:
Living Coast:
Green Turtle (are these still gone?)
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There aren't any green sea turtles anymore, but there is a Kemps Ridley sea turtle that was added last year.
Gondwana said:
Tropic World:
Spectacled Langur
King Vulture
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Now this interests me. Do you happen to know if the king vultures were free flight with the rest of the birds or were they sectioned off to their own aviary? If its the former its no surprise why they were removed. The langurs are also news to me as I was under the impression Tropic World: Asia was always orangutans, gibbons, otters and nothing more. I would guess aggression between the gibbons and langurs is probably why they were removed.
 
pachyderm pro said:
Some interesting stuff here. I distinctly recall hearing about the aardwolves being present around the early 2000s, but I couldn't find enough references to back it up.
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The aardwolves were rotated with jackals in the first long exhibit on the desert side (above the mole-rats). I think this had porcupines last time I was at Brookfield a few years ago.

pachyderm pro said:
Now this interests me. Do you happen to know if the king vultures were free flight with the rest of the birds or were they sectioned off to their own aviary? If its the former its no surprise why they were removed. The langurs are also news to me as I was under the impression Tropic World: Asia was always orangutans, gibbons, otters and nothing more. I would guess aggression between the gibbons and langurs is probably why they were removed.
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The king vulture was indeed free roaming in the South American portion. I wonder if that mix was ended because the monkeys harassed the vulture rather than the other way around.

I think you are correct about the langur/gibbon mix; spectacled langurs are pretty sensitve so I can imagine they didn't take the gibbons' antics well. It seems like a gibbon/macaque mix would better match boldness levels.

I remember a few more African primates that were once in Tropic World as well -- Sykes' Monkey and Talapoin. There is a monkey mixed species manual on the web somewhere that documents the Tropic World Africa exhibit, which always seemed to be a bonkers mix that resulted in at least one case of intergeneric hybridization between Mandrill and Sooty Mangabey.
 
Gondwana said:
There is a monkey mixed species manual on the web somewhere that documents the Tropic World Africa exhibit, which always seemed to be a bonkers mix that resulted in at least one case of intergeneric hybridization between Mandrill and Sooty Mangabey.
Click to expand...

is there more information on this hybrid?
 
I was in Chicago in 1984 WhenTropical World opened. I still have the guide book.This is the species list .
South America
Spider monkey, dusky titi monkey,tufted capuchin monkey, squirrel monkey,golden lion tamarin,two toed sloth, south american tapir.
Asia
lar gibbon or siamang,tonkeana macaque, small clawed otter, orangutan
África
Black and white colobus, mandril,talapoin, pygmy hippopotamus, sooty mangabey , kolb guenon, gorila.
Birds were not listed.
 
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The aardwolves were definitely in the zoo at one point. I vividly remember seeing them on a grade school field trip years ago. Before they were fully replaced by the African porcupines.
 
As an early Christmas gift, I was able to get my hands on some old Brookfield zoo guidebooks. After reading through them I have discovered even more former residents of Brookfield's seemingly never ending list of species that they have held through the years. There is a ton of new information here and some of this is genuinely mind blowing to me.

First thing I want to talk about is the Tropic World. The guidebook dates back to when the building was still under construction and lists several planned residents. I'm not sure if all of these species made the final cut, but I imagine at least some of these were included when the exhibit first opened. Species listed for South America include brocket deer, agouti, and a crocodilian species in the main exhibit (no idea how that last would have worked out). A cave for fruit bats was also in the plan at some point. Species listed for Asia included siamang, lar gibbon and crab-eating macaque. This is what I am most speculative of, as having two species of gibbon in the same exhibit sounds like an accident waiting to happen. There were no other previously unknown species listed for Africa.

Then there was an exhibit called "Arctic Mountain" which was another mock-rock mountain for dall sheep. It was located East of the old Children's Zoo - where Wild Encounters is now - and there was also a pond for a variety of waterfowl. I used to think dall sheep were exhibited on the old Sheep Ridge behind the Bear Grottos, which was actually home to the male Siberian ibex while the females were on the main island.

Then there are the birdhouses - something I definitely under researched on my opening post. There were four different bird exhibits back then including the Perching Bird House, Aquatic Bird House, Parrot House, and Pheasant Row. Here are some much longer lists of the former residents of these buildings. It's worth noting that the larger stork and crane species in the Aquatic Bird House were only held there in the winter and could be found with the hoofstock during the warmer months.

Perching Bird House:
Allen’s Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird
Bell Bird
Billed Tree Pie
Blue-cheeked Barbet
Blue Magpie
Blue-spotted Dove
Bronze-winged Pigeon
Common Crowned Pigeon
Crested Quail Dove
Crested-winged Pigeon
Dayal Bird
Emerald Hummingbird
Emperor Starling
Fairy Bluebird
Glit-Crested Hummingbird
Green Catbird
Ground Hornbill
Hunting Crow
Laughing Jackass
Macklot’s Pitta
Noisy Pitta
Piping Crow
Ruby-topaz Hummingbird
Ruddy Quail Dove
Satin Bowerbird
San Blas Jay
Sapphire Hummingbird
Sclater’s Crowned Pigeon
Shama Hoopoes
Sickle-billed Bird of Paradise
Six-plumed Bird of Paradise
Speckled Pigeon
Spur-winged Geese
Sulphur Toucan
Superb Bird of Paradise
Toco Toucan
Wandering Tree Pie
Wattled Starling
White-bellied Pigeon
White-brested Toucan
White-crowned Pigeon
White-necked Raven
Wonga-wonga Pigeon
Wood Hoopoes
Wood Warbler

Aquatic Bird House:
American Avocet
American Flamingo
Australian Pelican
Black-crowned Heron
Black-necked Swan
Blue Crane
Blue Gallinules
Brolga
Brown Pelican
Cattle Egret
Coreopsis Goose
Chilean Flamingo
Crested Screamer
Demoiselle Crane
Egyptian Goose
Galapagos Albatross
Gray-winged Trumpeter
Helmeted Guinea Fowl
Horned Screamer
Jungle Fowl
Magpie Goose
Maned Goose
Mandarin Duck
Marabou Stork
Orinoco Goose
Peacock Pheasant
Piping Guan
Saddle-billed Stork
Secretary Bird
Shoebill Stork
Vulturine Guinea Fowl
Wattled Crane
White-faced Screamer

Parrot House:
Amazon Parrot
Barnard’s Parakeet
Bare-eyed Cockatoo
Blue-winged Parakeet
Bourke’s Parakeet
Crimson Rosella
Derbyan Parakeet
Hooded Parakeet
Hyacinth Macaw
Kea
Lear’s Macaw
Pale-headed Rosella
Pileated Parakeet
Port Lincoln Parakeet
Red-sided Eclectics Parrot
Slender-billed Cockatoo
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Stanley Rosella
Swain Son’s Lorikeet
Yellow-bellied Parakeet
Yellow-bellied Rosella

Pheasant Runs:
Amherst Pheasant
Brush Turkey
Elliot Pheasant
Golden Pheasant
Impeyan Pheasant
Palawan Peacock Pheasant
Soemmering Pheasant
Swinhoe Pheasant
Reeves Pheasant
White-crested Kaleege

Now this part caught me completely off guard. I didn’t know very much about the now defunct Reptile House so you can imagine my surprise to find there was a mixed species Galapagos habitat with Galapagos penguins, Galapagos tortoises, marine iguanas and several other tortoise species! An exhibit that is certainly impossible to pull off today, but wow would I have loved to see this.

Reptile House:
African Spitting Cobra
Australian Black Snake
Blotched King Snake
Diamond Python
Egyptian Boa
Egyptian Cobra
Galapagos Land Iguana
Galapagos Penguin
Gould’s Monitor
Green Anaconda
Green Mamba
Hood Island Tortoise
Horned Viper
Indefatigable Island Tortoise
Indian Rock Python
Jerboa
King Cobra
Masked Cobra
Prairie Rattlesnake
Puff Adder
Sand Viper
Sea Iguana
Spectacled Cobra
Spotted Sand Boa
Tiger Snake
Timber Rattlesnake

With that, here are a few more updates to my first list.

Hoofstock Yards (Includes existing Hoofstock Row, and the former Small Antelope and Giraffe Houses):
Caama Hartebeest
Dorcas Gazelle
Fringe-eared Oryx
Giant Eland
Grant’s Gazelle
Greater Kudu
Isabella Gazelle
Lesser Kudu
Mongalla Gazelle
Musk Ox
Nile Bushbuck
Pronghorn
Roan Antelope
Thomson's Gazelle
Vaughan’s Cob
White-bearded Wildebeest
Yak


Primate House:
Bonneted Monkey
Brown Lemur
Brown Stump-tailed Monkey
Chimpanzee
Debrazza Monkey
Diana Monkey
Drill
Gelada
Grivet
Green Monkey
Guinea Baboon
Hamadryas Baboon
Lion-tailed Macaque
Mona Monkey
Moor Monkey
Mustached White-nosed Monkeys
Patas Monkey
Pigtail Macaque
Sooty Mangabey

Small Mammal House:
American Flying Squirrel
Gambian Giant Rat
Gray Squirrel
Jungle Cat
Lowland Paca
Masked Palm Civet
Raccoon Dog
Ringtail
Two-spotted Civet

Australia House:
Bennet’s Cassowary
Black-striped Wallaby
Brush-tailed Possum
Dingo
One-wattled Cassowary
Rat Kangaroo
Swamp Wallaby
Tasmanian Devil

Illinois Exhibit:
American Badger
Bay Lynx
Gray Squirrel
Opossum
Striped Skunk
Woodchuck

Pachyderm House:
White Rhino

Seal Rock:
Northern Elephant Seal (During the winter, the elephant seals were exhibited in the Pachyderm House.)

Big Cat Grottos:
Cougar

Bear Grottos:
Asian Black Bear
 
pachyderm pro said:
Now this part caught me completely off guard. I didn’t know very much about the now defunct Reptile House so you can imagine my surprise to find there was a mixed species Galapagos habitat with Galapagos penguins, Galapagos tortoises, marine iguanas and several other tortoise species! An exhibit that is certainly impossible to pull off today, but wow would I have loved to see this.
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This threw me for a tizzy! From my memory of the reptile house, this would have had to have been in one of the open air corners where the alligators were, no? Absolutely incredible to think about.

Also a convenient segue into asking if anyone has photos of the interior of the Reptile House when it was still being used? It's the one part of the zoo I haven't been able to find any photos of from my childhood. Closest experience I can find to it these days is the Reptile House at Toledo.

pachyderm pro said:
Aquatic Bird House/Perching Bird House:
King Penguin
Southern Rockhopper Penguin
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Any idea when and where these were exhibited? I distinctly remember a simple slope into cold water behind glass on the north side of the building that is now Feathers & Scales, but cannot remember what was housed there. I keep thinking it was a small otter, and was wondering if rockhoppers were ever staged there, but that could definitely be a false memory.

Appreciate all of the information gathering that's gone into this thread. Some really great stuff here!
 
Joseph G said:
Any idea when and where these were exhibited? I distinctly remember a simple slope into cold water behind glass on the north side of the building that is now Feathers & Scales, but cannot remember what was housed there. I keep thinking it was a small otter, and was wondering if rockhoppers were ever staged there, but that could definitely be a false memory.

Appreciate all of the information gathering that's gone into this thread. Some really great stuff here!
Click to expand...
You are correct, the penguins were exhibited on the North end of the building. There were king penguins and rockhopper penguins. Humboldt penguins were also present in this building, although I am pretty sure it was a different exhibit nearby. Throughout the various forms it has taken through the years this building has always been for birds so it definitely wasn't an otter you saw. I'm not sure when the Aquatic Bird House became Feathers & Scales, but I can estimate it was around the late 90s or maybe even earlier 2000s so I imagine that is when all of the penguins except the Humboldt's were removed.

The Reptile House closed the year I was born so I have no recollection of what the building was like. From my understanding, it was similar to the reptile house at the Saint Louis Zoo with a central garden right in the middle and various glass terrariums on the perimeter.
 
In the 80s there were Galápagos tortoises in a open área and a single Galápagos marine iguana exhibited separately in a terrarium. The only penguins were the kings and rockhopper in the Aquatic Bird house.
The reptile house was very nice. The central área had large enclousures for Python, anaconda and a dwarf crocodile. 2 large open exhibits for the tortoises and alligators. Many nice species in the other exhibits. It was more like the London zoo reptile house.
I was sad when i found out that Brookfield zoo had closed Both the reptile and small mammal houses though some enclousures were small by todays standards.
The lar gibbons and siamangs were rotated at Tropic World, nevEr together.I never Saw a reptile in Tropic World, which was a Huge improvement over the. Formar primate house, which was not good, in particular for the apes.
 
pachyderm pro said:
Now this part caught me completely off guard. I didn’t know very much about the now defunct Reptile House so you can imagine my surprise to find there was a mixed species Galapagos habitat with Galapagos penguins, Galapagos tortoises, marine iguanas and several other tortoise species! An exhibit that is certainly impossible to pull off today, but wow would I have loved to see this.
Click to expand...
What did the guide actually say? The Reptile House enclosure in which the Marine Iguanas were (at least usually) kept certainly couldn't have also contained tortoises or penguins.
 
Chlidonias said:
What did the guide actually say? The Reptile House enclosure in which the Marine Iguanas were (at least usually) kept certainly couldn't have also contained tortoises or penguins.
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The excerpt about the "Galapagos Scene" section reads the following. "Along the north wall of the building, there is a group of Desert island forms from the Galapagos: The Galapagos Penguin, the Indefatigable Island Tortoise, Hood Island Tortoise and Land and Sea Iguana."

There is a photo that shows the penguins and various tortoise species in the same exhibit which was an open topped beach set-up. The iguanas aren't pictured but the appear to be referenced to be sharing the same space. It's entirely possible this was either never the case of later changed based on the accounts from @carlos55.
 
pachyderm pro said:
The excerpt about the "Galapagos Scene" section reads the following. "Along the north wall of the building, there is a group of Desert island forms from the Galapagos: The Galapagos Penguin, the Indefatigable Island Tortoise, Hood Island Tortoise and Land and Sea Iguana."

There is a photo that shows the penguins and various tortoise species in the same exhibit which was an open topped beach set-up. The iguanas aren't pictured but the appear to be referenced to be sharing the same space. It's entirely possible this was either never the case of later changed based on the accounts from @carlos55.
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Interesting. It may be that they put them all together as a trial although I think it is unlikely they would risk their remaining Marine Iguanas. I suspect that the wording is a bit ambiguous and it refers instead to separate enclosures grouped in the same area.
 
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